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EVERY SPOKEN WORD
70 min read · 13,697 words- 0:00 – 1:16
Intro
- SPShaan Puri
Here's the headline, right?
- SPSam Parr
Great headline. Great headline.
- SPShaan Puri
Guy sells d- $1 bills for $15. Here's how. Right? [laughs] And so, um, here's what he did. So he basically... He's 15 years old, and he says he sees a dollar bill on eBay that instead of... Who's on the dollar bills? Washington or something like that? Uh, instead of whoever, let's call it George Washington, it's Michael Jordan's face in the middle, right? And he, he orders it 'cause he's like, "Oh, love Michael Jordan," or whatever, "This is funny," and gets it. And it's a... Basically, it's a normal dollar bill, but then there's just, like, a sticker paper over the George Washington. And you could just, like, do th- you could just go to OfficeMax and, like, do this. And so that's exactly what he did. He goes to OfficeMax. He's like, "I need to be able to create these, 'cause h- what better business is there to sell dollar bills for $15?" [laughs] And so he's, uh, he goes there, and then he goes, he puts them up on eBay. [upbeat music] What's up? Um, let's jump in. What you got?
- SPSam Parr
Ah. You tell me. You... I- I think I've been driving the last handful of, uh, sessions. I, I... I'm gonna ask you to drive right now.
- SPShaan Puri
Um, let's switch gears. I wanna do, um, a topic about... Do, do you...
- 1:16 – 13:40
Mark Jenney / side hustles
- SPShaan Puri
Y- I think you'd know Mark Jenney. You know Mark Jenney?
- SPSam Parr
Mark Jenney's a great friend of mine. He's, he's an amazing, amazing, amazing entrepreneur.
- SPShaan Puri
He's an awesome guy. We're going... I'm gonna meet him next week. We're going down to, uh, stay at one of his... He has this, like, luxury Airbnb portfolio, and you should follow him on Twitter. I don't, I think he's MarkJenney on Twitter.
- SPSam Parr
Well, you want me to give his background? Do you know his background?
- SPShaan Puri
Y- I know a little bit of it, but go, give, give the story.
- SPSam Parr
So if I remember correctly, I think he was raised... He had a, a... Something was a little s- wo- wonky with his childhood. I think, like, he didn't have a dad or a single h- single household or something like that, so he wasn't gr- he wasn't raised in, like, a very, uh, um, privileged place. And then a- at one point, I think he was even homeless, and he lived out of, like, a storage unit or something like that. He started a bunch of different companies, like info marketing stuff, and everything did, uh, kind of okay. Then he started RV Trader, I believe. Or is it RV Tra-
- SPShaan Puri
RVshare
- SPSam Parr
... RVshare, which was like Airbnb for RVs. Uh, he eventually sold a large portion of it to KKR, I think, a large PE company, and he probably made many, many tens of millions of dollars, a lifetime of money. Now he has a new thing that he's been doing for the last maybe five or something like that years where he buys... I think he owns 20 of them now. He's got a huge portfolio of Airbnbs, and these are high-end luxury homes that sleep, like, 20 people. It's, like, two acre, uh, like, a two-acre plot with, like, a fancy four, five, 6,000 square foot home with, like, basketball courts, tennis courts, mini putt-putt. And he's built this, like, really, really good business making millions and millions of dollars renting Airbnbs. And he's doing it right. And he's got a small team, and it's a proper company, not like a side project.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, I think w- what is it, like, a $50 million luxury Airbnb portfolio at this point.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, I mean, I, I... I'm friends with Mark, so he tells me lots of stuff, so I'm trying not to say any of the numbers 'cause I forget-
- SPShaan Puri
Right
- SPSam Parr
... what's public and what's been private. So anything that you... I'll let you actually say any of the numbers because you're probably getting it more public.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, that's just what he tweets out. So you should follow him on Twitter. He's a good follow. And it's cool to see. Like, he'll post, like, a before and after photo of these properties. He's like, "Here's what it was, and then we added a McDonald's PlayPlace in the backyard." And it's like he does, like, dope stuff, like, which I like. You know, he's not just like-
- SPSam Parr
And he's totally unheard of
- SPShaan Puri
... I'm a, I'm a home flipper.
- SPSam Parr
Like, he has s- he's got, like, maybe 2,000, 3,000 followers on Twitter, I think. Like, he's not, like, a popular, like a, like a big name person.
- SPShaan Puri
So he tweeted this out the other day, and I thought that this was a great... We haven't done a blue collar side hustle in a while, so I thought this was kind of a great little, eh, almost like a blue collar side hustle that he, he said he had done. I don't know if you saw this. He, he was talking about one of his very first, um, like, sort of side hustles that he did or early, early hustles was selling dollar bills for $15. Did you see this?
- SPSam Parr
Yes. Yeah, go. Tell s- tell the story.
- SPShaan Puri
So he tweeted this out. You can kind of look at it, but here's the headline, right?
- SPSam Parr
Great headline. Great headline.
- SPShaan Puri
Guy sells d- $1 bills for $15. Here's how, right? [laughs] And so, um, here's what he did. So he basically... He's 15 years old, and he says he sees a dollar bill on eBay that instead of... Who's on the dollar bills? Washington or something like that? Uh, instead of whoever, let's call it George Washington, it's Michael Jordan's face in the middle, right? And he, he orders it 'cause he's like, "Oh, love Michael Jordan," or whatever, "This is funny," and gets it. And it's a... Basically, it's a normal dollar bill, but then there's just, like, a sticker paper over the George Washington. And you could just, like, do th- you could just go to OfficeMax and, like, do this. And so that's exactly what he did. He goes to OfficeMax. He's like, "I need to be able to create these, 'cause h- what better business is there to sell dollar bills for $15?" [laughs] And so he's, uh, he goes there, and then he goes, he puts them up on eBay. And he... Oh, he first he looked on eBay, and at that time, eBay was showing, like, how many, um, how many items a seller would sell, and he could just keep track of it, like, okay, this week the, oh wow, they're selling, like, you know, 100 of these. Like, that's amazing. So he starts doing it. He creates an eBay account, he starts selling these, and he starts averaging 100 s- 100 bills sold per day for $15, which includes the shipping cost. General profit was about-
- SPSam Parr
So what's that, 1,500 a day?
- SPShaan Puri
F- about 1,500 a day. He's m- uh, he's profiting basically $1,000 a day, um, doing this. And then he s- he ramped it up, and he got it to, I think, $10,000 a day in, um, [laughs] in sales. And he became the largest seller of custom novelty collectible dollar bills on eBay. And-
- SPSam Parr
But it's a real dollar? It's, it was a real dollar bill?
- SPShaan Puri
It's a real dollar, yeah. And you just add the, uh, the sticker on top so you could sell it for more.
- SPSam Parr
Can you do that legally?
- SPShaan Puri
I guess so. Why not?
- SPSam Parr
I don't know. I, I don't know. There, I just thought there'd be some weird rules around money.
- SPShaan Puri
No, I think you could do it. Uh, like, you know, people sell these, like, coins and whatever. It seems, it seems legit. So then what he would do, he's like, "You know, here's..." So they had to start thinking of growth hacks. "How do I beat these other eBay guys at doing this?" So what he would do is- He would do one of the auctions and then he would direct message everybody who didn't win the auction offering them the bill at whatever their highest price was. [laughs] And so, um, and so, [laughs] so he's like, "You know, whatever. Eight was your top price? All right, I'll tell- I'll do it for eight." [laughs] And so he started, like, just racking up as many sales as he could doing this, so then he became the top ranked seller, which helped him in the organic search, uh, as he was going from there. And I kinda love this, and I loved it for a couple reasons. One, it's just another example of these little nuggets, these little stories that shows you there's a trillion ways to win. There's a trillion ways to get rich, right? Like, he was doing basically $365,000 a year of sales or whatever. Um, you know, he was doing really, really well at that time. You know, I'm selling-
- SPSam Parr
And how old was he?
- 13:40 – 19:57
Are courses legit?
- SPSam Parr
bring one thing up. Um, dude, this guy made fun of me the other day for having a course, and it hurt my feelings.
- SPShaan Puri
A friend or a internet stranger?
- SPSam Parr
Uh, a little bit of both. And it really hurt my feelings. Do you feel like... Because, all right, so I built a business before. I built a few businesses before, s- a few that I've gotten to seven figures, a few that I've gotten to eight figures. I've sold things. I should feel confident about this. And then you and I both have courses. I'm gonna actually launch another course that I think can be, like, a s- like, a million dollar plus a year income stream for me and my family, which is awesome.
- SPShaan Puri
It's never good when you have to say, "For me and my family." Like, if you have to justify feeding your family, that means, uh, there's [laughs] that's just the insecurity poking out [laughs] man, poking out of there.
- SPSam Parr
Well, it gives context, and I, what I mean is, is it the con- the question that I'm gonna ask is, is it worth it? Because part of me thinks, well, if I'm such a big shot, I shouldn't talk about it. I should just have shit and not teach it. But then I'm like, but I like doing it, and it's a significant, like, it pays for my whole life. So do you-
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, if you... Again, the, the only question I was gonna ask, do you like it? You like doing it?
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- SPShaan Puri
All right. Then that's enough, right? Like, who cares?
- SPSam Parr
But, but do you feel like a, you feel like a fraud sometimes too, or at least, I, you've never said that to me, but you said that when we had-
- SPShaan Puri
Well-
- SPSam Parr
... when we were interviewing that one person. You were like, "I kinda feel like a fraud every once in a while," or I forget what you said.
- SPShaan Puri
Not a fraud, but, um, I do feel, like, I make fun of myself about the course thing, um, because same thing.
- SPSam Parr
Self-conscious maybe.
- SPShaan Puri
What's that?
- SPSam Parr
Self-conscious is a better word-
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
- SPSam Parr
... than fraud.
- SPShaan Puri
Like, you know, I would say somebody who is, like, somebody who is really locked in, and I'll, I use the word locked in 'cause it's not about m- how much money you have. Uh, like, but it's true. Somebody who's really, really wealthy would not do a paid course, I don't think. I don't think somebody who's, like, super wealthy probably should be or would be doing paid courses. Pretty unusual to do that.
- SPSam Parr
Well, I, I think that's actually wrong though.
- SPShaan Puri
The only reason-
- SPSam Parr
Because, like, Warren Buffett ha- had a course at Columbia. I mean, a l- th- there's a lot of examples of, like, wonderful investors who go and they act a-
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, but I don't think Warren Buffett did his course f- like, I don't think he was pocketing a bunch of money doing a direct sales course type of thing. Like, I w- if I went and taught a guest, if I was a guest lecturer at Stanford, right, I drove 45 minutes away, I go guest lecture at Stanford and I'm a teacher there, I would be doing that for different reasons, and it would feel totally differently than me being like, "Hey, I have my power writing course. Go sign up and pay for it." Um, I don't know why it is-
- SPSam Parr
Okay
- SPShaan Puri
... it's, it's just different. It's, it's a different thing. But I would say two things. I said locked in because also if you have, like, a main thing that is totally, uh, an obsession for you, you're, you're loving working on it, there's so mu- there's more to do than you'll ever have time to do, you really wouldn't take the time to stop, pause, and go, um, sell a course. In my opinion about myself, I should say. I would not go do that. So to me, as long as I'm still doing courses, it's me, part of my wandering around phase, trying to figure out what I really wanna do when I grow up, what I wanna do with my life, what I wanna do with my time. I know that if I get locked in on, oh man, I really love this project, I'm just s- building brick by brick s- something that I'm really excited about, there's no chance in hell that I would push pause and, and teach a course. Even though my courses are, like, it's two weeks out of the year, so it's not a lot of time. But even, even those two weeks I probably wouldn't do if I was in that position. In the same way that when I was building my startup, I had no podcast, I had no angel investing, I had no courses. I didn't do t- I didn't tweet. I didn't do shit when I was building my startup for, like, seven years 'cause I was fully locked in on that. It's only after we sold that I started doing a bunch of these things, um, and that became the new, the new business was the podcast and other things.
- SPSam Parr
I think I'm gonna keep doing it, um, but-
- SPShaan Puri
I think you should totally keep doing it. You said you like it, so keep doing it. Let me share a little thing I do during my course, 'cause during the course, the, uh, the writing course, some people will be like, "You know, okay, I get it. Like, uh, this lesson was really great. I feel like I now have a much better idea how I would write to, like, kinda grow viral or build my brand." But there's a part of me that just feels like, you know, they'll ask a question that's like How much content would you say is too much? You know, is, what, what's too much to post? Or would you say that, like, you know, I should wait, you know, until my product launches to start doing content? Or, like, they, they ask all these questions that are-
- SPSam Parr
Like-
- SPShaan Puri
... sort of like-
- SPSam Parr
Self-promotey and, uh, self-conscious feelings
- SPShaan Puri
... self-conscious. There's just a, under, there's just a layer of self-consciousness around the whole thing. Or like, you know, "What do you, what do you say if you post something and then somebody comments? Do you take it down? Blah, blah, blah. Do you, do, you know, how do you deal with, you know, a negativity or blah, blah, blah?" And I always just say the same thing. I go, I go, "Oh, uh, I, I, I'm gonna ask you a question, but hang on. What, what time is it? I wanna make sure we don't go over. What time is it?" And then they're like, "Uh, 9:34." I'm like, "No, no. It's me o'clock."
- 19:57 – 45:07
Unpopular things learned on MFM
- SPShaan Puri
from there. So it just says, "A few non-popular things I've learned from this pod." Pretty good headline. Eight out of 10.
- SPSam Parr
Thank you. We'll accept. I'm gonna say each one, and I want you to give me your reaction, and then I'll explain a little more context. But all right, the first one-
- SPShaan Puri
Well, can you give context on the whole thing? Like where did this come from? Or what, what, why did you even think of this list of-
- SPSam Parr
Because-
- SPShaan Puri
... non-popular things you've learned from the pod?
- SPSam Parr
I see a lot of things online of people talking where they try to explain, uh, like rules, like you do have to work this much or you don't have to work this much or... And the reality is, is that, uh, there's a million ways to get the same things done. So, like, for every example of one person succeeding in one way, there's gonna be lots of examples of them succeeding a totally different way. So I think it's silly to have rules, and so I, like, will see these things of people posting of like, "Oh, you know, like they say, it's a 10-year overnight success." And in my head, I think, "Man, I know people who have had overnight successes where like literally in three months their life has changed," and I think it's silly to not acknowledge that, you know? And so that's how I kinda came up with this list. Um-
- SPShaan Puri
Okay. All right. Hit me. I'm excited now.
- SPSam Parr
All right. The first one I just said, so an overnight success, which is like one or six months, it's absolutely possible, and those, those exist, and they're real. What, w- agree or disagree?
- SPShaan Puri
All right, give us an example.
- SPSam Parr
For example, uh, we covered this company called Brumate, B-R-U-M-A-T-E, and the, I think in, like, year two they got to 20 million in revenue. In year one they got to, like, eight million. And I know a few people that have had other companies where, like, in the first six months, like, it kinda just took off and it worked. Uh, so we interviewed... Who else did we interview? Um-
- SPShaan Puri
Well, your, I would say your current stealth company we haven't talked about yet, taking off right away.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, it's, it succeeded, like, pretty quickly.
- SPShaan Puri
Now-
- SPSam Parr
But-
- SPShaan Puri
How do you count that? Do you count that overnight success, or do you say, "I've been preparing my whole life for this," right? That's the-
- SPSam Parr
I-
- SPShaan Puri
... that's the counterargument
- SPSam Parr
... I'll say, like, I built up a reputation and I'm trading off that reputation. But there are times, you, you and I have, like, talked to people, for example, we, uh, I had this guy on who you weren't here, but you know him. His name's Val. Do you know Val, V-A-L, Val?
- SPShaan Puri
Yep.
- SPSam Parr
He had a company where in year one it made, like, 10 million in profit and it was selling, like, ringtones on the internet. And, like, just some people just have the it factor. And then also, like, luck is real, so that's another thing. Luck is real. Sometimes you just kinda nail it and it just works. Not always, and most of the time it doesn't, but every once in a while it just happens. And so I think for people to say overnight success isn't real, I think that that's nonsense, 'cause I, I know a handful of people who are, like, 19, 20-year-old kids who they, like, within a few months, they've got something making many, many tens or sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in sales, and it just works.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm with you on that. I agree.
- SPSam Parr
Um, all right. Here's another one. I think at least in the beginning of your career, where you live, it actually really, really matters. It's incredibly important. And the people who don't move some places, I think they are at a disadvantage.
- SPShaan Puri
100% agree. Uh, I did this. I was sitting in Australia and I wanted to do startups, and I was go- I went to a local startup, like, event, and I was like, "Okay." Um, I'm, like, looking around. Everybody's being super nice, right? It's Australia. Everybody gets along great. And I just thought in my head, I go, "Who's the most successful entrepreneur in this room?" And it was this one old ass motherfucker who was like, you know, had built something in the '90s and he just, like, stuck around, and then nobody else pretty much. And then I was asking some questions or I was talking or something, and then the guy, the organizer was like, "Dude, you should give a talk next m- uh, next month at the meetup. Like, this is great. We would love to have you teach." And I was like, "Teach? I'm 23. I've done nothing." I was like, if, and I, like, at first I was flattered, and then I caught myself two seconds later. I was like, "Oh, wait. This just means I'm in the wrong pond. I do not wanna be a smart guy in the room." They should be like, "Dude, you should shut up. You don't know anything about anything." That's the type of room I wanna be in. And so I literally went home. I went on, I think, like, T-Mobile or whatever. I activated a, a, a phone plan and I got a 650 area number, uh, area code, um, because I was like, "I need to Just mentally, before I even move, I need to go to Silicon Valley now. So I changed my phone number, and then I booked a ticket, and my mom was like, you know, "What are you gonna- where are you gonna stay? Do you have a job?" I was like, "I don't know. I, I don- I'm gonna figure it out, but I'll- I have a better shot of figuring it out there than I do from here." And that was my whole mindset, and Tony Robbins has a thing he says about this. He goes, "Proximity is power." And I am a huge believer that proximity is power. I have done pretty crazy things to just get in proximity of people that I think are awesome. Like, I will take jobs that I think are like the worst job of all the job offers I have if I know that it's gonna get me to sit side by side with somebody awesome, because I know six months next to that person is gonna do more for me than, uh, you know, like a better higher paying job would've done. And so proximity is power. I'm a big believer.
- SPSam Parr
This goes beyond business. It's beyond business. Just anything. If you wanna make it in m- the movie industry, you have a higher likelihood if you at least spend a handful of years early on in Hollywood. Just putting in the time matters. You know, if... There's like these funny stories about Bill Murray, he lives in like North Carolina or something, and he's like totally out of the loop. It's like, yeah, that, that, that definitely works. There are examples of that, but I think it helps.
- SPShaan Puri
Increase your odds.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- SPShaan Puri
You, you wanna increase your odds of success.
- SPSam Parr
The second one or the third one, luck is, is incredibly real. You know, I remember like early on in my career, I was thinking like, "There is no such thing as luck. It's just hard work, and I'm just gonna do it." Nah, shit's real. Shit's real.
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
I remember... I, I've said this story a bunch of times, but when we were selling our company, Brian Halligan, the CEO of HubSpot at the time, got in a life-threatening accident two weeks after we closed, and there's a world where two weeks before, if it happened, it could have ruined it. Uh, I think you've had a couple examples where if one or two things happened before or after selling a business, like it, it, like within like a month, it could have changed things. Uh, getting sick really matters. Being born like in a healthy place, in a healthy family, like things like that. Luck is totally real, and I think that we dismiss it too often.
- 45:07 – 1:00:21
Last minute gourmet gift ideas
- SPShaan Puri
it. Um, let me give you another idea. All right. So I, I was doing... Do you do like gifts, like company gifts for the holiday or something like that? Do you like send out gifts? You don't seem like a-
- SPSam Parr
No. W- no, that wasn't, that wasn't a me thing. Do you, are you doing that?
- SPShaan Puri
You seem like a warm, tender person who might-
- SPSam Parr
That, that... You know, gift giving's-
- SPShaan Puri
... give those
- SPSam Parr
... not my love language, bro. Words of affirmation are.
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
Silent nods of approval-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah [laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
... my love language. [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
Yeah. Yeah. A pat on the back is the greatest gift. [laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
The greatest gift is the lack of criticism-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah
- SPShaan Puri
... that I have provided you today.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
Um, so I was thinking about it. I was like, oh, you know... And I remember at, at a, you know, at a previous company I worked at, the, the office manager, she was good at this stuff, and she would get like everybody's address, and then she would send these Harry and David gift, gift baskets. Have you ever had a Harry and David gift basket?
- SPSam Parr
No. What's that?
- SPShaan Puri
Oh, dude. Imagine [knocking] somebody's at the door. Who could it be? You go to the door. Uh, "Hey, we have this amazing, huge gift basket for you." You take it into your kitchen. You're like, "Wow, what's, what's gonna be in this gift basket?" Sam, take a guess. What's in this gift basket?
- SPSam Parr
Chocolate, I guess.
- SPShaan Puri
C- could be chocolate. Could've been chocolate. It's not chocolate, though. What else could it be?
- SPSam Parr
Uh, like local foods, like bricks of salami and cheese?
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs] It could be salami and cheese. There's a little bit of that. There's a little bit of chocolate. There's a little bit of cheese in there. Pears. They had these jumbo pears, and they know because pears are the most underrated fruit. They are the official fruit of My First Million as far as I'm concerned.
- SPSam Parr
I agree.
- SPShaan Puri
These huge, delicious pears were in there, and I was like, "What the hell is this?" And I was like, "What is this giant gift that I received, and why does it, why is it so awesome?" And, um-
- SPSam Parr
It's called what? Harry and David?
- SPShaan Puri
Harry and David, right? So th- so they, they do gift baskets of all kinds, but this one was of a giant pear basket that we got. And I still remember this thing, and I was... Dude, you came over to my house. I don't care if you're the, the cleaner. You're just a guy walking by. I was slinging pears to you 'cause I had the juiciest pears that were gonna go bad. They were massive, and I needed to offload these things. And everybody asked, "Oh, wow. Where'd you get this?" I said, "My company sent it to me 'cause they love me." And that's how I felt. And so I thought... I, I, I always remember this experience. And so then I started digging. I was like, what's up with this Harry and David thing, by the way? And-
- SPSam Parr
Oh my. They're huge
- SPShaan Puri
... Harry and David sold to a company that you know of, 1-800-Flowers, for $142 million back in 2014. And they have a couple, you know, main brands of this. They got Harry and David, which is these gift baskets. They have Wolferman, which is gourmet English muffins and other foods like that. And they have Stockyards, which is, you know, prime, you know, prime meats, basically. Um, and Harry and David, it's a super seasonal business. Fall and winter is when they get a lot of their orders. And, um, they got 50 retail stores that, like, you know, help them fill the stuff. And it got me thinking about Harry and David. It got me thinking about 1-800-Flowers. I did a little deep dive. So 1-800-Flowers starts off as a phone number 42 years ago. [laughs] Literally, it was just 1-800-Flowers, and it goes on to build basically like a $600 million plus business. They, you know, for a long time, it's just a phone number. Then 1995, they, they start e-commerce because they're like, "Oh, we need this." And they basically have like thousands of locations and fulfillment centers, not all owned by them, but like fulfillment partners, somebody who can send flowers to you. And, um- You know, basically these guys are... It's like four- it's like a bundle of 14 brands, and let me just give you their, their revenue last quarter. So-
- SPSam Parr
They're publicly traded
Episode duration: 1:00:21
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Transcript of episode 4O6mwAz8Ufc
